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20100212

“More farmers were killed and tortured this weekend…' the situation is extremely serious, “ she warns

Feb 12 2010 – Walland, Tennessee, U.S.A. -- Ordained religious minister Theresa Wiid announced that she has started a 40 day pray and fasting for South Africa “because of the genocide of white farmers” (and crime victims of all races) in South Africa.

The Cape Town born preacher invites others to join up in prayer or fasting with her for one or more day. “The situation is extremely serious.” she writes. “More farmers were killed and tortured this weekend too. The crime is unbelievable.’

She writes: “The silent genocide of the white South African people and farmers (Boers) – can also be accessed on the YouTube video “A Bloody Harvest – The South African Farm Murders” where you shall see very disturbing news .... it has disturbed me terribly and I am very concerned. This made me realise that there’s a need to create an awareness to that which is happening under the radar from the world. All the crime statistics are no longer released until the SA Goverment says so and why... to be censored so that the real statistics are hidden from the nation.”

“Where are the Jesse Jacksons of the world now why are they silent to the silent killings, the murders, the crime that is perpetrated against the Boer? Where is there no outcry against the songs which are sung as so-called folk songs, “Kill the farmer kill the Boer “? Where is the outcry now? Where is CNN? MSNBC and why are all the media silent? “ She lives in the State of Tennessee, is married and has two children. She can be reached on her Facebook page and also can be emailed at theresawiid@hotmail.com

Pretoria – Feb 6 2010 -- A group of Afrikaner farmers in Pretoria have demanded that government help "stop farm murders" and pleaded their case in an open letter to President Jacob Zuma. "Surely, if politicians and senior officials can publicly direct police officials to use firearms to prevent crime or becoming the victims...the very same principle should apply to law-abiding citizens who do not enjoy the luxury of police protection," said Transvaal Landbou Unie SA (TLU SA) chief executive Bennie Van Zyl. He accused the police of being corrupt and said government failed in its responsibility to protect its citizens.

The agricultural union called for a formal summit with the ANC-government to renew the safety initiatives that former president Nelson Mandela had implemented during his term. Van Zyl and several others spoke at a ceremony held in memory of farmers who were murdered. In the open letter to Zuma, Van Zyl spoke about the threat against farmers, their families and their employees.

"The producers of food and fibre are threatened by vicious criminals responsible for committing the most hideous crimes against mankind displaying no respect for age or gender," he said.

Johan van Biljon, chair of the organisation's youth divison said since 2006 there had been a systematic increase in farm murders. While wiping away tears, the group laid calla lilies at empty coffins and on a white cross in commemoration. "They say we [are] ready for the [Fifa] World Cup, but in the rural areas it's a different story," said Van Biljon, expressing concern about rural safety.

"The unabated continuance of the most brutal violence against the producers of food and fibre, their families and their employees is not only targeting a specific sector of the economy in a manner to which none other can compare," he said. "But it seriously places South Africa's already-eroded strategic asset of food security at risk." The youth division were expected to hand over the statement to police representatives as they did not attend the ceremony to receive it.

BETHAL – February 7 2010 - An elderly Afrikaner Bethal farm woman had to walk 4km to get help after three farm attackers had killed her son execution-style on on Sunday-morning – a popular time for farm-attackers -- and stole her cellphone so she couldn’t call for help. Hannetjie Venter, 79, didn't actually see them kill her son Fanie, but did hearthe single shot the robbers had fired into his head – execution style. A friend of the family, Sakkie Pretorius, says her ordeal started at about 08:30. He says Hannetjie saw the black gunmen - apparently three of them - and tried to warn Fanie who was busy elsewhere on the farmyard. "He probably didn't hear her.One of the men put his hand over her mouth."Fanie, who always carried a firearm, was caught unawares and was shot in the head."When she got to him, one of the men said her son was ‘just sleeping’. But there was blood everywhere and she could see that he was dead," Pretorius said.The robbers held a gun to her head and forced her to unlock the safe. "She asked: 'Why don't you shoot me as well?" The farm attackers could have looted all the contents of the homestead at their leasure – but they only stole a shotgun, cellphones money and Hannetjie's handbag. Francois van Dijk, a neighbour, says because the robbers stole the Venters' cellphones and Hannetjie can't drive, she and their dog walked about 4km to Van Dijk's house to get help. "She got here at about 10:00. She walked all the way. It was very traumatic for her." Van Dijk immediately alerted the police and neighbours, but the men - who'd arrived in a car - were long gone.ttp://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/60b201281fb34a4f9adce8ae2c9fdea5/07-02-2010-11-18/Farmer_dies_from_single_shot_to_the_head

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February 8 2010 - André Damons reports in Beeld that two woman neighbours found smallholder Collin McLaud 63 shot dead on his Meyerton smallholding – shot twice while the unarmed white smallholder making tea in the kitchen. Beeld wrote the story after the SAPS captain Shado Mashobane had confirmed the murder – that’s why it took three days to report. “Beamptes op die toneel het ’n windbuks en flitslig naby die man se lyk gevind,” het Mashobane gesê. Stolen were two hunting rifles from the safe. And after he’d cooperated by opening the safe for them – they clearly had just gunned him down. The police officer also refused to provide Beeld with a contact number for the murdered man’s wife so that they could speak to her about her ordeal. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/7ca2947023d74fff976a9cd3e68c2adf/08-02-2010-12-39/Man_(63)_op_kleinhoewe_vermoor

Stilfontein farm worker Ms Sophie Jonas was still cleaning the blood-stains from the homestead’s carpet when Beeld journalist Nicolize van der Walt arrived on January 26 2010 to report about the frenzied panga-attack which has left Afrikaans farm resident Theresa Eksteen, 51, in serious condition at a local hospital.

According to her family, Mrs Eksteen, left, underwent surgery to repair her crushed hands – one pinkie was nearly severed -- and she remains in deep shock and in pain. “

The picture left of the injured Mrs Eksteen was taken by neighbours while she was being stabilised by emergency personnel.

Mrs Hodges lives just a few metres away from her daughter’s cottage along the Vaal riverfront. “She came knocking at our door, and blood was streaming from her. She couldn’t speak and could barely stand.’ Her husband Norman – who works in Zimbabwe, installing cellphone towers – rushed back upon hearing the dreadful news.

Hoedspruit, LIMPOPO. - Unknown criminals attacked an elderly Afrikaner couple on their farm in Limpopo on Thursday night, killing 70- year-old Koos van Staden. He and 66-year-old wife Henriette (both pictured left) were sleeping in their homestead on the Glenco sugar estate in the Hoedspruit district when they were shot at from the outside through the bedroom window while watching TV, writes Thobile Mlangeni. He quoted SAPS superintendent Ronel Otto as saying that the elderly couple were in bed at about 21:30 when “ intruders or an intruder “ fired a shot through a window into the Van Stadens' bedroom. "Van Staden was shot in the neck and died on the scene," said Otto.

Another similarly mysterious murder was also committed in Hoedspruit before. On July 1 2008, 65-year-old wildlife farmer and East Rand businessman Roy Munks, news clipping from Rapport newspaper left, was found dead in a kraal on his Hoedspruit farm - and while police initially reported this as an accidential death due to a ‘buffalo attack’, forensic examinations revealed that he had been stabbed to death.

A second court-hearing subsequently ruled that the initial ruling by the local inquest court that Munks had been killed by a buffalo on his Hoedspruit farm was wrong. A few weeks after this ruling, two armed attackers were arrested while breaking into a nearby house – and ‘spoke out of turn during questioning by police’ admitting to Munks’ violent death. http://www.news24.com/Rapport/Nuus/0,,752-795_2396862,00.html

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Farmers not allowed to defend themselves against armed attackers: Wilhelm Rocher arrested for making citizen’s arrest of armed stock thief:

Picture left: Farmer Wilhelm Rochér, the chairman of the TLU’s western region was forced to spend a weekend in a police jail after he was arrested for making a citizen’s arrest of an armed stock thief. The TLU points out that this farmer now has to stand trial for ‘attempted murder’ for carrying out the duties of the SAPS – 50,000 of the 117,000-strong police force were forced to attend National Police Day celebrations in Bloemfontein. The TLU points out that if the police had been available, Mr Rocher would not have had to arrest a stock thief who was threatening his livelihood.

2010-02-05 GEORGE, Garden Route - Tisha Steyn reports in Die Burger newspaper that Nick and Elsie Els – a retired couple who had moved from Phalaborwa to the rural village of Swellendam on the Garden Route to be ‘safe in a peaceful village’, were both found murdered yesterday-morning. Their bloodied, lifeless bodies were discovered by their gardener at their home on the corner of Kerk- and Bloekom avenues, reports Ms Steyn.

Swellendam is world-famous for the nearby Bontebok National Park, where this dignified endangered African buck can be seen in all its glory. The SAPS statistics show that the population of about 25,000 residents last year were targetted by 159 armed attacks against families inside their homes last year; 19 murders plus homicides together and 48 registered rapes (‘sexual crimes’). There also were 219grievous assaults and there’s also an amazingly high level of drug-related crimes registered for such a small village. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swellendam_Local_Municipality

Sixty-three-year-old Els and 58-year old wife Elsie were murdered with a ‘blunt object similar to a road-hacking tool,’ said police. They found ‘blood on the front-door, and there were signs of a struggle in the living room,’ they said. Mr Els lifeless body was found in the living room, Mrs Els was found dead in their bedroom. Neighbours and long-time friends were deeply shocked. Mrs Mariaan van Wyk a friend of the couple for 45 years who knew them ever since Phalaborwa, said the couple had moved to Swellendam because they wanted to live in a quiet, safe village.’ Five years ago, the Van Wyks and the Steyns had pooled their resources and purchased Powell House business premises in Voortrekker street together and the building houses Mrs Van Wyk’s hair-salon and Mrs Els’ interior decorators’ shop, ‘Something Else.’ The entire building now is owned by Els because Van Wyk had sold his shares to the couple. “Nick was retired but helped Elsie with hanging blinds etc. They built their dream-house on top of the koppie overlooking the town,’ Mrs van Wyk said. The Els couple leaves two sons, Jaco of Pretoria and Francois of Nelspruit, who are enroute to Swellendam to arrange the funerals. Daughter in law Coret Els said they still visited with the family in Swellendam and Struisbaai over the December holidays. Good friends from Phalaborwa, such as the businessman Manie Kriel, said they were devastated by the double murder. There seems no motive – police were unable to establish whether anything was stolen -- and no-one was arrested. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/15cb5f42ed784e58a8167580deb03f9e/05-02-2010-06-53/Egpaar_in_stil_dorp_vermoor

JOHANNESBURG. – Well-known Free State farmer Crawford von Abo won a groundbreaking law suit in the Pretoria High Court – which sets the precedent for the private land-ownership rights for all South Africans who invested in Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector, writes senior Beeld editor Philip de Bruin, who is a former magistrate. “In Von Abo’s case he was a victim of Mugabe’s ‘land-reform policy’ which is widely being described as draconian,’ writes De Bruin.

Von Abo owned several well-utilised farms in Zimbabwe which were all confiscated. The Pretoria High Court ordered the SA government to compensate him for the seizure of his 14 Zimbabwean farms, unless it acts to protect his rights. The court ruled that he not only has a right to diplomatic protection against the Zimbabwe government’s violation of his rights, but that the South African government is obliged to provide this protection.

Yesterday Judge Bill Prinsloo ruled that the South African government and the foreign affairs Minister must bear mutual responsibility for the financial losses suffered by Von Abo due to the events in Zimbabwe. The farmer’s attorney Ernst Penzhorn of Pretoria said after the ruling that as far as he knew, this was a ‘groundbreaking ruling in South Africa because such cases have not yet been dealt with in any South African courts’. The next step is for Von Abo and his legal team to work out the costs of his losses and hand over the bill to the ANC-government and its foreign affairs minister. They might have to go to court again to force payment. “It will probably take a few months longer before matters are completed,’ said Penzhorn to Beeld. Von Abo has waged a long drawn out battle in the South African law courts – and he even sued in the Constitutional Court to demand his rights. Other farmers who lost their properties may also now follow suit and sue the ANC-regime. Von Abo’s bill he expects to present to the South African government may amount to as much as R500-million. After the positive ruling in the Constitutional Court, the SA Centre for Constitutional Rights supported the judgment, noting that this is good news for all property owners who “feel threatened by moves to dilute their rights in property”.

The Constitutional court in its 2008 ruling had also been highly critical of ‘the failure of government to afford diplomatic protection against the violation of the property rights” of Von Abo whose farms in Zimbabwe were expropriated without compensation by the regime there. The Constitutional Court also complained that officials "have done absolutely nothing to assist the applicant [Von Abo] despite diligent and continued requests for diplomatic protection...No explanation whatsoever has been forthcoming for this tardy and lacklustre behaviour." http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/99ccec7f5dda4b6a9e5730b81038f69c/06-02-2010-05-11/Bekende_VS-boer_wen_Zim-saak

Hermanus on the Garden Route hit the headlines recently with some very violent attacks on foreign tourists, all hiking in the remote state-owned Fernkloof nature reserve. Things got so bad there that the authorities at the nature reserve put up crime-warning signs, started assigning security guards to hiking groups – and issuing them with pepper spray and whistles.

The last reported attack was on December 30 last year, when a fifth group of tourists hiking at Fernkloof reserve in Hermanus was attacked within just a few months. There probably have been more since – but are not being reported by the SAPS. Three international volunteers lodging at nearby Camphill School were held up at knifepoint on Monday morning by two men who stole their camera and a cellphone, police spokeswoman Pindelwa Mavakala said. And just as had happened in previous attacks, the attackers stoned the hikers, telling them to look away. The hikers - Brazilian Luca Reigosa, Swiss Cornelia Schneider and German Anna Fliske, aged between 19 and 26, according to Mavakala - were not injured. This happened only a week after a Canadian couple of South African descent were stabbed, stoned and left bound by two men at the intersection of a jeep track and a hiking trail. A week before that, an Italian couple were attacked: noted is the extreme violence and cruelty with which these attacks are carried out: for instance, a party of elderly South African hikers was cruelly beaten with their own walking sticks. Municipal manager Werner Zybrandts said the two women were body-searched by the attackers. Four of the five attacks occurred at this site and police are investigating “whether the attacks are linked”. After Monday's attack, which happened shortly after 11am, the three hikers walked down to the information centre at the Fernkloof Nature Reserve entrance. Law enforcement officers subsequently arrested a man they found in the reserve, Zybrandts said. Later, in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley on the other side of the mountain, Mavakala said a security guard had become suspicious and followed a man who was slowly driving a vehicle close to Camphill Farm while talking on a cellphone. "Two guys climbed into the car and he dropped them off later, close to Hermanus," she said.

Police officers, who had arrived on the scene, arrested all three men and found the hikers' cellphone and camera in bushes close by. Zybrandts said one of the four men - who were still in police custody late Tuesday - had been positively linked to Monday's mugging. "We're still busy with investigations to see if we can recover any of the items that were stolen in the other attacks," said Mavakala. As a result of the previous four attacks, Zybrandts said, warning signs had been erected at six of the reserve's informal entrances, warning hikers of the attacks and urging them to use the main entrance where they could sign in to a control book. The three hikers mugged on Monday had not, however, passed one of these signs. "They came in from a totally different area on the other side of the mountain. There are no signs there." In the first attack on November 12, an Italian couple was held up while sitting on a bench. One week later a German couple was held up at knifepoint nearby, and a week after that eight elderly South African hikers from Strand were beaten with their own walking sticks, said reserve manager Grant Forbes. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20091230043520332C161573

The Canadian news media was told how they were stabbed, stoned, bound and robbed while hiking. Martin, 59, and Janet, 57, Stern, left, were left bruised and lacerated after the "completely senseless" attack.

A concerned hiker, Delia Scott, has offered a R1,000 reward for information about the attacks: "It is very close to our hearts because my husband and I often hike that route," she said.

Municipal manager Werner Zybrandts said Hermanus was now stepping up its security in the area, erecting warning signs and offering security guards, pepper spray and whistles for hiking groups.

Martin said having hiked for more than half an hour from the entrance to the reserve at the bottom of the kloof, they were walking along a jeep track on top of the mountain when they passed two men walking in the opposite direction. "I said good morning, and they nodded," he said, speaking from his hospital bed at Hermanus Medi-Clinic. A few seconds later they heard running footsteps behind them and presumed joggers were approaching. "The next thing we knew we were being stabbed in the back. I was stabbed next to my kidney, and they stabbed Janet in the arm," said Martin. "They pushed us to the ground and picked up rocks." One attacker smashed Martin across the face with a rock and ripped his bag from his back using his knife. "They had large hunting knives that looked about 12 inches (30cm) long, then they really started roughing us up. " Janet started saying to them: 'Would you treat your mother like this?'" Every time she said it they beat her again. "I was trying to reason with them, but they were totally out of control," she said. "I think they were drugged up," said Martin. "They were completely senseless - there was no rationale. "If they had just come to us with knives I would have given them the money equally." The attackers took a camera, Janet's watch and wedding ring and cellphone before forcing them down the slope away from the road, throwing rocks at them as they walked. About 30m down the slope the attackers used the couples' shoelaces to bind their feet and hands.

"We were feeling very faint and we were beginning to pass out and they told us to lie down. One of them kept saying: 'Don't kill them. Don't kill them.' Our worst thoughts were that they would slit our throats, or rape. "Janet said to me in Hebrew: 'We're going to pray to God,' and then they left us." The couple were left alone, dehydrated, drenched in blood and weak…

When Janet tried to raise her head, they threw rocks at her, and then the couple were left alone, dehydrated, drenched in blood and weak. Staggering back to the road, they collapsed repeatedly.

"There were flies all around us. The blood was caked everywhere." Reaching a bench at a viewing site, Martin said: "We can't stay here. We're losing too much blood." Staggering again down the jeep track, they saw a group of hikers approaching - the Jouberts. They gave them water, mopped their brows, applied a tourniquet to Martin's worst wound and called rescuers, who airlifted the couple to hospital. "They saved us," said Janet of the Jouberts.

Martin Stern said they agreed to be interviewed "because I don't want anyone else to be killed." Originally from South Africa, the Sterns moved to Canada more than 20 years ago. Born in Cape Town, Martin Stern is a vice-president and financial adviser at CIBC Wood Gundy. The couple had been returning to the Cape Town area annually since 1994. One of the couple's three daughters told the Globe and Mail that her parents had no plans to change their travel arrangements in South Africa despite the attack. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/12/24/south-africa-stern-martin-janet-attack.html

Italian couple attacked two months ago:

Grant Forbes, reserve manager at Fernkloof, said that in the first attack two months ago, an Italian couple were approached from behind and held up at knifepoint: "They didn't see the guys' faces." The other two attacks were similar. In the second, a woman was slapped in the face, and in the most recent attack, three weeks ago, eight hikers were mugged by two men who beat them with their own walking sticks.

Thursday, 4 February 2010

HARTBEESPOORT. Wheelchair-bound farm attack survivor Flip Nel, who owns the Flower Art shop in Hartbeespoort, won’t let the cruel, gruesome attack on July 30 last year against him and his murdered life partner of 20 years, Christo Smit, destroy his fighting spirit, writes Cynthia Dreyer of Madibeng Pulse, the online newspaper for the Magalies/Brits region.

Smit was shot in the spine – the bullet is still lodged in it -- and he’s grieving for his murdered partner, who was fatally injured at their smallholding in Elandsfontein in July last year. Christo died in hospital the next day, and Flip has been in rehabilitation between July and November last year at the Academic hospital ‘s Pretoria Rehabilitation Centre. Cynthia Dreyer of Madibeng Pulse, who interviewed the popular florist, writes that Flip Nel’s strong spirit prevails despite all the pain and trauma he has endured – also thanks to all his many friends and well-wishers.

Picture left: Flip Nel, now wheelchair-bound, is picking up the threads of his life again and returned to work at Flower Art in Hartbeespoort.

JOHANNESBURG HIGH COURT -- The man co-accused of murdering Franz Richter, a major German investor owning the Heia Safari Ranch at the Cradle of Humankind tourist resort near Muldersdrift/Magalies, claimed in court yesterday that a top cop had ‘tortured him and forced him to implicate his co-accused, Ms Celiwe Mbokazi,’ - Richter's widow.

2010-02-04 Linda de Beer - 69-year-old Schweizer-Reneke farmer Mannetjie Pieterse, his blind son Johan, 27, and their guests were attacked on Monday-night just after they had been outside, having a braai on their farm Houtvolop. Two attackers had first confronted Johan, in the bathroom – and the blind man was pistol-whipped three times over the head before the attackers stormed down the hall to confront the rest of the family. Mr Pieterse senior said they must have been watching the family while they were having their barbeque with their guests in the (fenced in) backyard. “The backdoor was open at one stage and they must have entered there,’ he said. A ‘rifle was fired’. And what happened after that is unclear from this report -- however two suspects were arrested the following night, said inspector Wimarie van der Merwe. The two suspects will appear in the local magistrate’s court on Thursday. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/9f8b451da08e47b7911c2f91e26c2280/04-02-2010-02-46/Boer_dink_eers_plaasaanval_is_%E2%80%99n_flou_grappie

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Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Carte Blanche TV recently reported about the tremendous stress commercial farmers are being placed under in KwaZulu. They interviewed attacked farmer Colin de Gaspary, a Midwest farmer whose life has been turned into a nightmare by illegal squatters on his farm. TV’s investigative journalist Carol Albertyn Christie and its presenter Bongani Bingwa also interviewed the Landless Peoples’ Organisation and various Land Affairs officials. Their conclusion: Zimbabe-style farm invasions are inevitable…

Colin de Gaspary (interviewed Midwest farmer on Carte-Blanche TV): 'I want my future to be here - this is my dream. I have always dreamt of living in this country and farming and I'm trying to live my dream. That is what I am trying to do.' For Colin de Gaspary, who has been living in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands for the past 11 years, that dream remains elusive. For now it's more like a nightmare. His life, he says, is being threatened by people who have unlawfully settled on his farm. He was brutally attacked one evening when he was burning a firebreak on his farm. Colin: 'I was surrounded by seven of them, and tried to talk my way out of it. And the next minute the blows just came from all directions. They hit me with sticks and one of them had a metal pole. And they split my skull, broke my nose, two blue eyes, broke my finger, chipped my elbow.' Read the entire transcript (M-net very stupidly does not put extracted news clips of their reports on You Tube –a very poor publicity decision…) http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/Article.aspx?Id=3766&ShowId=3

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '